The Smithy

Lately, I've gotten more interested in drawing machinery, metal, tools and workshops. Sadly, I don't get to see too many workshops in New York, but I took advantage of a recent trip to Mystic to visit the blacksmith's shop. Not only is it nice and warm inside, but they have more tools than you can shake a stick at! Plus, how often do I get to see a forge? Not often enough! I have more drawings of the printer and the shipyard, which I will probably post at some point, but I think this was my favorite drawing of the trip.


And since it seems appropriate to put him here, here's a page from my sketchbook with the blacksmith who was nice enough to let me sit in the shop for hours.

Fun with Friends

My lovely friend Julia has posted some iphone drawings some friends and I did of each other while away for the weekend. My contribution is the last one, but I think my personal favorite is April's drawing of Julia the cat.

Berlin iPhone Portraits

I recently got back from Berlin, and while I have great memories of fun at bars and cafés, and being out with friends, a lot of my time was spent companionably sitting around the kitchen table with Julia and our roommate Konstantin. So on the way home from Berlin, while the plane shook in the turbulent air, I distracted myself by playing with the Brushes app on my iphone.

Here's Julia; silk scarf, hair poof, freckles and all:

Konstantin was harder, since I don't know his face as well and I didn't have the original in front of me. I have promised a more faithful portrait the next time I have the chance.

A shout out to my friend Julia, who keeps a beautiful blog of her iDrawings, which were my inspiration. Also, here's a fantastic slideshow of David Hockney's iphone drawings narrated by Lawrence Weschler of the New York Review of Books, as well as a video of a New Yorker cover done by Jorge Colombo with the app.

Liberty Bell Reportage

The Liberty Bell is a symbol of independence, liberty and justice. It was rung on July 8th, 1776 to summon the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was also rung at the beginning of the First Continental Congress, and at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. I've been meaning to get to Philadelphia to see the bell, which hangs in front of Independence Hall. Fortunately, a full scale replica hangs at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, in Liberty Square. Below is my panoramic drawing, as well as some stamps.

(click on the drawing to see it larger)

Animal Kingdom Reportage II

I tried to focus more on the people in this drawing. The park is always a busy place, and families are rushing around trying to fit as much in as possible before the kids get too tired.

Animal Kingdom Reportage

The most fun thing about drawing in Animal Kingdom is to try and capture all the different textures of the plant life. Every tree, every bush, every vine rewards observation.

Time for Sake

While my very favorite drinks are caffeinated (the title of my blog is "Time for Tea" for a reason), I have been known to indulge in stronger stuff. I recently had an opportunity to taste some sake, although I opted for plum wine, or umeshu instead. Technically, to the Japanese, I was still drinking "sake" which refers to alcoholic drinks in general (it must be true, I read it on Wikipedia!). Plum wine is made from green unripe plums, or ume. The one I tried came in a bottle that looked like so:

Those are little ume floating at the bottom. The particular type I tried was called Kairakuen, and the lady was nice enough to write down the name for me in kanji.

She poured me a tiny little glass, and even gave me an ume, which I ate last. The little green plum was so strong—sour and filled with alcohol! It was quite a zinger!

In fact, even though the glass was only a few ounces, I was completely tipsy as I did these wine labels. Maybe that even helped? They feature ume (of course), as well as plum flowers, and the kanji that the helpful Sake lady drew for me.

The uber-minimalist one with the plums:

And here are a couple with the same design elements in different proportions. They're not exactly labels yet, I kind of like them just to describe a mood.